That dragon ‘s been bound to get a smack over his head the whole time. *gg* Maybe he discovers one of his nasty tricks later on, but for now, let’s have him enjoy the bliss of getting clubbed over the head.

as for Alex – I think, he’s not ready for that. This tale is as well an adventure as a coming-of-age story, for the hero to learn and to mature. Besides, I do not consider this a task for him alone. I reckon, this dragon-bashing requires quite some teamwork. ‘t is good, that Alex ain’t alone.

The thing you’re ignoring, Ivaron, is that he’s getting swarmed by an army of battle hardened dwarves, and his reaction is annoyance. Bragnort looked like he had the upperhand, but with one unseen blow, he was thrown back and was coughing up blood. There’s more to Nicodemus’ combat abilities than monologuing. Tomorrow’s page probably shows Nic re-inventing the concept of dwarf tossing. Think the scene with Sauron on the battlefield at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring.

I think Nicodemus forgot the first rule of fighting dwarves: Don’t fight them underground. This is especially true you’re alone and/or if you’re a flying creature with a primarily ranged breath weapon attack…

Well, of course, it IS Dwarves he’s fighting, and we all know Dwarves hunt Dragons for their treasures xD
@KiZer: nah, I’m not ignoring that, I’m just saying – the bad guy is supposed to be nasty, we need to hate him!

Good grief, we’ve got a giant made of rock, an elven princess who we’ve already seen is more than a little good with a bow, and a guy with magical armor that has made him all but invulnerable so far and a magic sword that he knows for a fact will hurt Nicodemus. Yet they all stand there like useless goons and watch as the dwarves battle the dragon? Maybe the dragon beats them, chases them off, I don’t know, but it’s just ridiculous for them to not even make an attempt to join the battle. Pitiful.

Galamere: I won the battle of Alesia (Caesar’s Gaulic Wars) that way once for the Gauls: a huge avalanche of wild, naked, blue-painted Celts with big swords and other pointy steel bits that flooded over the siege walls. The poor Romans lost over a legion in the attack alone, and then had to withdraw to the rest of their siegeworks, and Vercingetorix was able to waltz out across the breech I’d made. Fun. Poor Julius Caeser probably never had a chance to be dictator, having lost the war in Gaul.

Bryanlion, why aren’t Nastajia, Alex, Paddington, et. al. helping? ‘Cause they’re guests! Dwarves let guests help fight dragons in their own home only if the guests really, really want to help. And if the dwarves haven’t been able to do it themselves. Just a matter of hospitality and tradition, it is.

Yeah, the “elephant” would be in trouble. But when it becomes “army ants vs. flamethrower”, the odds tend to swing the other way (depending on the ratio of available fuel to available “ants”).

And why haven’t our heroes jumped into the fray? Simple: with that many ticked off dwarves in a confined space, all converging on the same objective, the last place you want to be is in amongst them. Add to that the VERY dangerous nature of their adversary, and any fool (or even Alex) can figure out that there is safety in distance.
Or, to put it more succinctly, they would be far more likely to get in the way and get hurt (or get a dwarf or two hurt, in the case of armored Alex or Paddington) than they would be to make a significant contribution.